Such a system is known, for example, from WO 95/06309 A1 and includes a remote control with a microphone and a circuit for forming a modulated infrared signal. A user's speech entries captured by the microphone are transmitted via an infrared signal to a control device that converts the speech entries into code words and are transmitted to an evaluation circuit for forming control commands, for example, for a video cassette recorder or television set. Certain functions can be executed in the television set or video cassette recorder by individual speech entries or speech commands. For example, a channel may be selected, the sound level may be set or the playback of a video tape may be stopped. A description is also given of a time programming for the video cassette recorder in which a programming is made in a fixedly predefined sequential order in that channel, date, starting and end time are entered. When speech is entered, the entry of numeric characters is necessary. After numeric characters have been entered, for example, for a channel or a time of day, they are made into responses for providing a respective control of the video cassette recorder or television set. A comparison is then made with stored patterns. If a numeric character has been wrongly recognized and assigned to a wrong pattern, there will be a faulty control.